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Topic: Broody broody broody (Read 1617 times)

What should I do? She wants to make her nest where it shouldn't be. Every evening I have to get her and take her into the coop so the night critters don't get her, but everyday she is back in the wrong spot.

As you might recall I got an old travel trailer to use as a coop. One end for the coop and the other for storage. On the one side I have not gotten around to putting a door on it. The outside door is missing. A few of the chickens have started going over on that end and laying eggs in a closet. Then the one has decided that is where she wants to sit. :roll: It is not a secure place. Perhaps I can do something with the closet so I can close her up in there at night. Or should I build her a cage on the right end of the trailer and lock her in there until she gets the other idea out of her head?

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:rainbowflower: Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak. :rainbowflower:

Do you have any eggs for her to hatch? If you want to go another round with a broody I would put a door on that end and give her a safe place to hatch.She is probably going there because she feels its a safe place to get away from the other hens and raise her offspring, even if she doesn't have a bunch of eggs to hatch yet.Maybe you can put a door with some hardware cloth on it for her.The other option is to make it more appealing to them to lay in the other part of the coop.Maybe they don't have a secluded enough spot to lay and thats why they go to the closet.I have the same issue sometimes with my girls, they all want the same nestbox that is partially hidden behind the hanging feeder.Rather than lay in the available boxes they form a line and climb into the one box 3 at a time or I find an egg in a shrub or some other obscure area.My husband just uncovered a bunch of eggs under a wooden pallet.Then yesterday I was standing outside in my driveway talking to my daughter when an egg rolled out from under the double doors on the carriage house. I was like what the...?I went in to find a hen just coming out from behind some stuff we have stored in front of the doors, so she thought she would sneak in there and hide an egg.She would have gotten away with it for a while too if the egg hadn't rolled out and under the doors.The more dark and secluded you can make the nest the happier they are.I have heard of people hanging curtains over the boxes too, at least partway across so they can still get in.If you want to keep them down that end I think you will have to make it more attractive to them to want to lay, otherwise give up the fight and make them safe at the other end.These hens are high maintenance I tell ya. :-D

So I got it where I can close her up in the closet at night and gave her 13 eggs. I would sit the eggs around her and she would pull them under her. Then she wiggled and waggled settling on them. She really seemed happy. :-D

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:rainbowflower: Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak. :rainbowflower:

Ha Jerry!!! For a guy that has just began keeping chickens (can't remember, but I think it was last summer), you are doin' just fine with all the chickeny stuff, you gonna have chickens comin' out your ears, smiling. I think that you did good with what you did with that gal, you're lucky, you got those broody hens. What breed are they? None of my chickens go broody, well, except for Micky, a little white coloured gal, but she hasn't yet, she is still just another chicken running around the chickenyard, smiling. Beautiful days in our great lives, health. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

I'm really not sure. I got the Assorted Rainbow Layers from Estas Hatchery. The first to brood look sort of like a Rhode Island Red but doesn't have as much comb. This broody one is a big fluffy yellow one that I bought a few months ago from a little old lady.

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:rainbowflower: Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak. :rainbowflower:

I have a Buff Orpington pair of chicks that are now 9 weeks old. They are very nice little birds, but figure this, the male is very, very friendly, the gal is rather stuck up, hee, hee. I wonder if chickens go broody in the fall, probably not, but next spring I bet she will be a good mamma. Beautiful and most wonderful days, to love and live, health. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service